Cultured Vultures @ Boom Bap Festival 2015

When you realise you’re on to something wonderful, it can be very difficult to maintain it as such. This is particularly true of festivals because true excellence rarely stays hidden for long and Boom Bap is gradually building a real name for itself, but will it ever go supernova? There is absolutely no way, the fans won’t let it, the artists won’t let it and the organisers (lead by Ivan Andrade) certainly won’t let it. Last year, the dedicated UK hip-hop festival attracted 2000 revellers to Mildenhall Stadium with the promise of some of the biggest names in the scene, alongside none other than Ghostface Killah. It was a huge success, but this time around it was no bigger, no more bombastic, it kept to the formula, by and large and I applaud it for that, I really do.

Getting on to the site again was a heartwarming experience, it was like visiting family, in a weird way. The layout was more or less the same, but with some key additions and a few subtractions. The Clockwork Stage was gone, replaced by a cinema/tea tent and the Dead Beat Disco Stage. All the other stages (main, Square One, Backyard) were back with a vengeance and a new mix of food and merch stands had appeared, alongside a strand of fresh, blank walls for the graffiti. Being that I turned up a day ahead, it allowed me some time to settle in before everything kicked off proper, although all the early starters were treated to a set from Mystro (otherwise acting as a compare) and a special rap battle which had the crowd yelling out 5 random words which the rappers had to work in. Special mention must go out to And Co, ie Sleevie Wonder, who had the crowd chanting his adopted moniker all night. And for the rest of the weekend.

It’s kind of nuts. It looks like every year it’s getting bigger and better – Genesis Elijah

Once things kicked off proper the next day it became almost immediately apparent that the festival had attracted a huge wealth of newcomers (including the group I ended up spending most of the festival linked up with, who were all pretty wonderful and I definitely wasn’t asked to put this bit in). As the grounds slowly filled up and the festival started to really come to life, you could see the curiosity and excitement written all over everyone’s faces. Boom Bap really is a stereotype defying festival, I would love to drop some particularly judgemental, standoffish member of the aristocracy right in the middle, flanked on all sides by people in bucket hats, airmaxes, hoodies and all the other streetwear and watch their resolve crumble like old drywall as they realise how friendly, welcoming and passionate everybody is.

Early hours spent perusing the record store (stocked largely from Pete Cannon’s personal collection), finding out what Kendrick Lamar’s Money Trees sounds like through the Lion Pulse soundsystem (really fucking good) and watching a few early doors acts gave way to a gorgeous afternoon when the main stage really started coming alive. Smellington Piff, one of my favourite rappers at the moment dropped an impressive split set with fellow Real Life Drama poster-boy Jack Jetson, followed shortly by a mind blowing run of acts from Cappo to Black Josh to Jman to Split Prophets. Long story short, they all killed it. Later in the evening the first prominent American guest rocked up in the form of the ever-excellent Homeboy Sandman and then almost immediately after it was time for Fatima & the Live Eglo Band. They were an astonishing, beautifully timed intermission between what was already a really varied main stage bill, playing the kind of Little Dragon/Hiatus Kaiyote-esque playful neo-soul that’s perfect for 7 in the evening and helped ease everyone into the ensuing firestorm.

Boom Bap 2015 has been the best one so far, for me. The vibes have been great, the weather’s been great, the music’s been great and hopefully 2016’s going to be exactly the same – Jman

Storm fire it did, for the whole night. I went back to the campsite for a little while after Fatima to get my bearings but by the time I got back it was a war-zone, the Rhymepad stall (the proving ground for most of the weekend’s smaller rap battles) was in full flow, Triple Darkness were tearing the Deadbeat Disco apart and the main stage was being occupied, insanely, by Hot 97’s Peter Rosenberg, who had caught wind of Boom Bap and taken it upon himself to make a special DJing appearance. After that things got mega, Cult Mountain are one of the biggest, best groups in hip-hop right now and they’d never played on a level quite like this before, you could see how the energy was transferring between them and the crowd. After that came Earl Sweatshirt and I have to say he might be my highlight of the night, I’ve always been in two minds about his glitchy, off kilter solo style but he had everyone in that audience completely transfixed, either gently swaying or statue still. Then the clock rang Skepta. Any uncertainty about inviting a grime artist to headline a UK hip-hop festival (scratch that, THE UK hip-hop festival) quickly dissipated, he was as good as ever, but under no illusions about the world he was in and he made that clear.

The grime actually brought an interesting element to the evening, highlighting the mutual respect the two genres can and often do share for each other. Grime might be louder, there might be more blunt force trauma, heavy beats and general TEMPZ-ness but it’s self aware and it knows its roots. That’s why it was so emotionally uplifting to find that whilst grime was running a victory lap in Square One courtesy of Purist & 184, the Rhymepad stall was caught in the midst of one of the loveliest, most familial rap battles I’ve ever had the pleasure of witnessing. When it finally ended in the wee hours of the morning I could swear a few people were crying, but that might have been from sheer exhaustion. The site continued to buzz for hours thereafter, though.

Boom Bap festival is the jewel in the calendar of UK hip-hop events, it’s really nice to see the community coming together, everyone in the scene building and networking in one field. I think that’s one of the most beautiful things about this event, watching all the different crews come together in a nice peaceful way and it was really refreshing to see how Skepta came across to a traditional UK hip-hop audience, I think he was really well received, he smacked it. – Sammy B-Side 

Saturday was a slow, carefully starting day. I managed to get out on site with plenty of time to get ready for one of my absolute favourite things about Boom Bap, the beat battles. They were fantastic last year and this time around it was no different, with a particular highlight being the round which had the combatants using a small clutch of samples they had literally only just heard. The variety and inventiveness on offer was vast, I heard shades of Dilla, Nujabes, Blockhead, Ammoncontact, Mr Thing (actually in attendance) and too many others to name, it really is Boom Bap’s crown jewel. The main stage line-up on Saturday balanced nicely with the Silka takeover at the Deadbeat Disco, with Verb T & Fliptrix throwing out a timely early set, shortly followed by the awesome Strange U. The afternoon proceedings over on the main stage saw a triple threat of Mr. Thing, Age of LUNA and the Norwegian duo Ivan Ave and Fredfades, who turned out to be one of the surprise highlights of the entire festival, for me at least.

The late evening saw a solid run of High Focus titans like Jam Baxter, Dirty Dike and The Four Owls, who were preceded by the legendary Jeru the Damaja. Saturday was an easier ride than Friday in many ways, especially given that the lineup would suggest that much like the year before, most of the really hot acts had been reserved for Sunday. Other Saturday night highlights included Hannah Faith’s set at Square One (keep an eye on her, she’s got a bright future ahead) and the breathless Run Tingz Jungle showcase over at the Backyard, which was punctuated by (who else) Serial Killaz and I’m struggling to think of a tune they didn’t drop, it was one of the biggest crowd-pleaser jungle sets I’ve ever born witness to.

I just hope this can continue forever, it’s a great thing for the scene, it’s a chance for everyone to get together and interact, I meet a lot of artists here that I don’t see that often so new projects and things can come out of this for me which is great. I get to see some great friends and it’s just a great community, man. Always, always big up Ivan for doing this and let’s hope we can have Boom Bap 2025 and keep going and going and going. Loved doing the record store, that was a lot of fun. – Pete Cannon

The variety of acts on display only became more evident as the festival carried on, as good as the previous year had been, it had felt samey at times but there was no sign of that this time around, the hip-hop acts were so distinct and the other genres on offer so rich that after a certain point in the day you could just rove across the festival and set your own tempo. Late that night I even stopped off to watch a film, an early screening of Industry 1’s fascinating new hip-hop documentary, A Way of Life. It turned out to be well worth doing. Once again by music’s end the grounds were no quieter, they were awash with battles and cyphers the likes of which you would see at literally no other festival. That’s the beautiful thing about hip-hop, even if you have a big, beautiful festival to populate, all you need is each other and it’s enough (pass the corn).

Sunday was, as I said, ridiculous. Last year I had to leave in the early evening but this time I was tethered to nothing so troublesome. I drank in a few acts around the smaller stages and was particularly happy to see Pete Cannon throwing out a blistering jungle set in the backyard which had people desperately battling past their lack of sleep and abundance of brain singes to carry on skanking. Ocean Wisdom, meanwhile, proved to be a festival highlight for a huge portion of the crowd after his set at the Deadbeat Disco, cementing his position as one of the strongest up and comers in the game. The main stage was white hot from beginning to end with early sets from Rum Committee and BLVKBLVRD & Theme, but things really kicked off when the legendary veteran that is Skinnyman arrived. His set, while heavily compressed, was magnificent with all the classics getting their dues, some deeply emotionally enthralling a cappella which called back to work laid down in Council Estate of Mind and guest appearances from Chester P and Skinnyman’s own son (he didn’t rap, he’s a bit young for that). The later evening sets, moved along by the ever-entertaining Stig of the Dump were pretty universally excellent, Skitz knocked it out of the park with a monstrous showcase replete with weighty names and Ratking were absolutely unreal, their brand of obscure, storied, instrumentally fed hip-hop was a perfect closing note to the US contingent of the festival.

I think now Boom Bap is fully out of its shell and everything has set in place nicely because everything seems to be running a lot smoother than the previous festivals, not to say that the others didn’t go smoothly, but it’s evolved now, it’s just settled and it’s smooth. All the shit’s in the right place, all the stages, all the tents all the food stalls, so it’s working really well. I think the formula is finally right. I’ve had a great time, I got fucked up on Friday, I got fucked up on Saturday, I’m fucked up right now, gotta perform in a couple of hours and then I’ll get fucked up again after. – Ceezlin (Rum Committee)

Foreign Beggars were the closing act. Now, I know they fuck with a lot of drum and bass now and I like Alix Perez as much as the next guy, lord knows I’ve spent a hefty fraction of my adult life flailing my limbs like demented wolf spider to that kind of thing, but would it have been too much to ask for a fully old-school set, through and through? Don’t get me wrong I still loved it, especially the decision to bring so many other acts on stage to drop guest verses (and take another opportunity to embarrass Ivan) but when the tempo jacked up about half-way through the set it was a bit of a rug-pull moment.

That’s really a pretty minor nitpick though, as a whole the festival was incredible, the weather was amazing, every improvement made was positive and the vibe was intoxicatingly friendly, you could stop anyone and engage with them and you’d find a common thread and likely end up making a new friend. This formula works, it’s been successfully field tested for the second time and it’s paid off immensely. Hip-hop feeds itself, everyone there is there because they want to be and it creates a blossoming atmosphere of support and celebration. This is festival built as much by the fans as it is by the acts and organisers (well, not literally, the fans all got to lumber home on Monday morning) and, only 4 years into its tenure, it has already built a dedicated following. Here’s to 2016.

Boom Bap 2015 was the illest shit ever, if you wasn’t here then you missed out, this is the greatest festival in the world, son! Make sure you get your tickets next year. – Leaf Dog (The Four Owls, Brothers of the Stone)

 

Photographs kindly provided by Anis Ali and Pippa Griffith Jones